— in- 

 flexibility it formerly possessed in common with other ferns, and 

 had left nothing but pride of ancestry, that empty husk which is 

 so often mistaken for greatness. * 



The rootstock is short, stout and densely covered with scales 

 of a light brown color, resembling somewhat a small rabbit's 

 foot. This usually creeps just beneath the surface. As it 

 branches freely the ferns are usually in clumps. Strange as it 

 may seem, this makes an elegant house-plant. I sent one home 

 from California in 1891. On my return in 1893 it was a fine large 

 specimen, having over seventy-five fronds on it, some of them 

 over a foot long. These were trained in the form of a fan, and 

 extended from one side of the pot to the other, their stiffness 

 keeping them in place. 



Seabrook, N. H. 



FORKING FERNS. 



By Aug. H. Hahne. 



In recent years many cases of forking ferns have been de- 

 scribed in European and American botanical journals. Some of 

 them are well known to the readers of the Fern BuelETin. It is 

 impossible and not in my intention now to give a detailed account 

 of the supposed manner of their origin, of their inheritance and 

 or their importance in the interpretation of phylogenetic and palae- 

 ontological facts. I hope to do so in a short time and think it 

 will be of interest for fern-hunters to read about the cases ob- 

 served hitherto by myself. Forking is found in the main rachis 

 of the fronds as well as in their segments of every range, some- 

 times increased to the degree of an entirely crested or tassel- 

 ed habit of the tops. All bifurcations of the rachis are called 

 formae furcatae, excepting those in which the forking extends 

 into the stalk. These are named formae geminatae. When dicho- 

 tomy is repeatedly to be found, there is a forma cristata if furca- 

 tions are crowded together at the tops of the fronds or segments, 

 and a forma ramosa if they are loosely dispersed all over the 

 frond. A combination of these, now and then to be seen, may be 

 called forma ramocristata, and every kind of segment-forking 

 forma bifida. 



